


A New Atmosphere

by skittyTail



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/F, High School AU, Human AU, Pining, everyones just really happy mostly, plot twists to come, so much pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-22
Updated: 2015-07-22
Packaged: 2018-04-05 17:09:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4188012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skittyTail/pseuds/skittyTail
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Annabeth has an odd feeling about the new girl at school, Piper McLean. She seems to fit rather seamlessly into the group, but Annabeth still cant shake how she feels. Piper has some kind of secret; surely she does. And Annabeth has a suspicion that this new girl isn't the only one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. What if You Found a Sasquatch in a Petting Zoo?

“No, really, guys! It’s not that far of a stretch!” Percy’s desperate words followed Annabeth and Nico in the still air of the music wing.

“Yeah, sure,” Nico puffed over his shoulder at Percy, who’d apparently been so into his argument that he’d stopped walking.

As Percy scurried up to rejoin the group, Annabeth peered into the dark practice rooms. “Mmhm. And I bet he helped the aliens who planned 9/11, too.” A passing student walking the opposite direction gave her an odd look as she chuckled to herself.

“You guys are gonna be so sorry when they finally make a sasquatch enclosure at the zoo,” Percy said, crinkling his nose proudly.

Nico stopped in his tracks. and spun on Percy. “Okay,” he said flatly. “On a scale of one to ten, how serious are you about this, really? ‘Cause, like, I wouldn’t put it past you, but I really don’t want you to think this is a real thing.”

An involuntary smile quirked at Annabeth’s lips as she continued walking, prodding curiously into the band room that usually was full of mindless chatter like their own. A free period like this entailed just about everyone in the band finding time to practice, more often than not, but today, not even the annoying theatre kids were in the music wing.

Upon closer inspection, Annabeth saw that the room wasn’t entirely empty. The band director was off to the side, jotting down the upcoming week’s schedule on the whiteboard. The little squeaks of the dry erase markers were surprisingly loud in the well-equipped room, its acoustics often harder to appreciate on more busy days. Before Annabeth could approach the band director, an exasperated Percy stamped out in front of her, his arms thrown in the air. “Jeez,” he sighed. “Nico just _doesn’t_ get it! Honestly, I… woah. Where’s everyone at?”

“Petting zoo,” was the band director’s compact response. He glanced over from the board, his long features scrunching in curiosity. “I guess you three aren’t there because you don’t know about it?”

“Oh, my god, that was today, wasn’t it?” Annabeth put her hand to her forehead, shaking her head.

Percy turned to Annabeth, his mouth scrunched to one side. “Why didn’t you tell us? Don’t you know _everything?_ ”

Snorting, Annabeth pushed Percy away. “Oh, can it. Like I keep track of the _farming club’s_ activities.”

“Um, yes, hello, what the hell are you two talking about?” Nico piped up from the threshold, raising his hand.

“Oh, yeah!” Annabeth grinned and tugged on Percy’s sleeve, leading him and Nico out into the hallway. “I forgot that you’re a freshman; now we gotta show you this!”

Furrowing his brow, Nico strode up until he was walking parallel with Annabeth and Percy. “Still confused, y’know,” he pointed out.

“It’s a thing the school’s farming club does,” Percy explained eagerly.

“Yeah,” Annabeth said, running her hand along the tall windows that lined the hallway. The natural light was one of the best parts of the school’s facility. “Every year, they have a week dedicated to the club, and they hold various events. The most popular one is the petting zoo, where they just bring in a bunch of farm animals and let students come in n’ play with them.”

“I didn’t even know we had a farming club,” Nico muttered.

“I’m not surprised,” Annabeth replied with a smile. “They might as well not be real every other week of the school year.”

“Oh, so now you’re denying the existence of clubs, too? First bigfoot, now this? Where will it end?” Percy put a hand to his chest, throwing the other up in the air dramatically.

“Ohoho, don’t start on that again,” Annabeth threatened.

“I’m just sayin’...”

Nico was the first to follow through, lunging at Percy as he backpedaled smugly around a corner. Annabeth was right behind, chortling as the trio scurried through the dull beige hallways, their shoes squeaking on the shiny floor. “Wait,” she called between bouts of laughter. “You don’t even know where the petting zoo’s at! You’re gonna get lost!”

“Awh, don’t you trust me?” Percy guffawed, still scampering away. “I can totally get there backwards!”

“No you can’t!”

Thankfully enough, the three managed to get to the room without too much trouble, though Annabeth had to pell Percy to turn a few times because he was too proud to actually watch where he was going. He’d gotten dangerously close to bowling right through a janitor, and Annabeth could do nothing more than throw a helpless apology to the befuddled worker. Nevertheless, the kids found the right wing and when they finally stopped, Annabeth directed Nico into the room that was being used. The petting zoo itself was half outside, but the smaller animals were being held in what was usually the room for engineering classes. There was a tall garage door in the back of the huge room, one of the biggest in the school, and outside were some bigger animals, like horses and cows.

The room was inevitably crowded and smelly, as high schoolers and barn animals are not a good mix, but it was hard to pass up something that made the mundane days in the middle of the year a little different. Curious, Annabeth approached a spot with people clustering excitedly. She hopped onto her tippy toes and saw that at the center was a tall member of the farmer club, holding what might have been the fattest rabbit Annabeth had ever seen. Various hands were fluffing and petting its white fur, while the creature itself seemed completely indifferent.

A familiar face pulled itself away from the little crowd with a frazzled expression. “Oh, jeez, hey Annabeth,” Leo greeted, giving a tired smile. “What’s up?”

“I lost my ensemble to this little event, so I decided to visit,” Annabeth puffed. “What about you? I didn’t take you for an animal person.”

“No, actually, I’m very much a human and I’m offended that you’d have any doubts about that because I’m here,” Leo said, earning a chuckle from Annabeth. “No, but really I’m just stuck ‘cause these frickin’ corn chuckers stole my room. Came here to work on a project n’ got caught in helpin’ out.”

“Damn, who knew the farmer kids were such thieves?” Annabeth shrugged helplessly before her sleeve was pulled. She looked over to see Percy, his eyes sparkling.

“C’mon,” he said, tugging Annabeth away from Leo. She tossed back a hurried wave as Percy continued, “I wanna see the horses.”

Annabeth shook her head, confused, as she and Percy wove through students. “So? You don’t have to take me everywhere; I’m not your mother.”

“Yeah, but you’re awesome, and I like showing off how awesome we are together.” Percy raised his eyebrows at Annabeth like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Last time I checked, we haven’t been ‘together’ since that confusing half-date in the seventh grade,” Annabeth gibed.

Percy glared at Annabeth over his shoulder. “You’re never gonna let me live that down, are you?”

Annabeth snorted. “What was it referred to as, again? I’m pretty sure everyone in our class called it ‘the noodle incident’.”

Percy’s response was covered up by a familiar voice, perfectly rising above the buzz of the crowd and gathering attention. “Hey! Percy, over here!”

Percy hopped a bit and quickened his pace, calling back, “Oh, shit, Jason!”

The two of them met halfway, Percy absentmindedly towing Annabeth along. It didn’t take long for them to start fist bumping and making weird gestures, and Annabeth felt like the conversation was getting just a little too bro-y for her tastes. Relief came when her wandering attention found a pair of friendly faces in the horse’s pen.

Hazel and Frank spoke to a group of students about the horse that the club had brought in as Hazel did little demonstrations of just how naturally she led it around. Students reached out and pet the dark coat of the horse as it got close to the fence, and Hazel seemed pretty proud of how much attention it was getting.

Annabeth found an empty spot along the fence and waved to Hazel, who gladly waved back as she spoke to the other students about her hooved friend. Frank let her take the reins, so to say, and strolled over towards Annabeth.

“Hi, Annabeth,” he said, grinning. “How’s the petting zoo look so far?”

“Pretty great. I can tell the club put a lotta effort towards it.” Annabeth shuffled her feet. “Though, admittedly, I kinda forgot that it was today until the band director told us.”

“Hey, it’s alright. We try not to bore you with our club stuff most of the time.”

Annabeth sighed. “Yeah, but I still should’ve known. What kind of friend forgets about this sorta stuff? Especially since everyone’s been working so hard on it.”

“You suddenly decide you want us to talk about our farm animals with you?” Hazel joined the conversation, having gotten off of her horse and let it trot about the pen on its own.

“Well, hey, if you care that much about it, It’d be the right thing for me to listen to it.” Annabeth offered a smile, smoothing her hands down her shirt. The atmosphere of this event was starting to stifle her a little bit.

Percy appeared next to Annabeth, catching her off-guard. “You guys can totally bring that stuff up with me, y’know! I actually really like horses!”

Annabeth glanced over her shoulder. It looked like Percy and Jason had had enough bro-ing it up, because the tall blond was nowhere to be seen. She turned briefly back to the conversation to see Frank and Percy chatting, but she didn’t really hear what they were saying. Something bigger was blocking her attention. She felt like a pair of eyes had been boring into her back since the instant she’d come outside, and it was really starting to get to her. It didn’t make sense that someone could or would be staring at her in the crowded area around her, so Annabeth was inclined to write it off as an odd vibe and nothing more, but still she found herself searching for a set of eyes that would somehow fit the shape that she felt had been drilled in the back of her head.

For a short moment, the feeling was relieved, and Annabeth wondered if she really just had been imagining something. Her gaze wandered and found their way to an unfamiliar person, perched atop the fence around the cow pen. A girl in loose, light clothing looked down at the calf next to the fence, and, as Annabeth looked at her, she felt an odd, almost thawing feeling, similar to the sensation of finally breathing through her nose after a cold.

After a couple seconds, the girl looked up, her eyes finding Annabeth’s across the river of students miraculously quickly, and Annabeth felt a pit in her stomach the size of a grapefruit. It took a nudge from Percy next to her to snap her out of her trance. “Hey, I _said_ does that sound okay?”

“Does what?” Annabeth fell back into the reality that directly surrounded her. “I’m sorry, I spaced out.”

“Oh, well, we were thinking of maybe going out for ice cream or something after school today,” Frank explained.

“Yeah, _spacy_ girl,” Percy said. “All of us, too. The whole squad’s goin’ out.”

Annabeth nodded, a flush prickling at her neck. She felt so rude for ignoring her friends. “Oh, yeah, we should totally do that. Er, wait, right after school? Don’t we have rehearsal?”

Hazel chimed in, “it’ll actually probably take us some time to pack up with the club after this is over with anyway, so it wouldn’t be _right_ after, per se.”

“Also!” Percy held his phone up. “I just got a text from the band director. He got caught up in something, so rehersal’s cancelled. Booyeah!”

Annabeth glanced over the email. “Huh. That’s serendipitous.” She actually felt a little disappointed; she’d been looking forward to practice. She figured she could maybe drum out her unease today. “Alright, well, I guess it’s a thing, then! I’d…” Annabeth grabbed Percy by the collar before he could strut away. “Rather, _we’d_ be happy to help you guys and the club clean up, if you’d like.”

Hazel smiled gratefully. “We could always use some extra hands around.”

Percy shrugged Annabeth off, reversing the roles by grabbing onto her sleeve. “C’mon, we gotta tell the others about it.”

Annabeth wrinkled her face a bit, staying put. “Whatever happened to texting?”

“What’s the point of texting if we’re all in the same room?” Percy asked, turning his hands upward.

“Alright, then why do I have to come with?”

Percy pouted a bit, hunching his shoulders. “Yeah, alright, party pooper.”

Hazel leaned over the fence, flashing a smirk at Percy. “You’ll get plenty of time with Annabeth when you’re helping us clean! You can handle her being ours ‘til then, can’t you?”

Percy spun around, waving her off. “Fine, fine, you guys can stay put and be lame!”

Before Annabeth knew it, Percy had disappeared into the current of people. “Thanks for the backup,” she said, turning back to Hazel.

As Annabeth put her hand up for a high-five, Hazel took a moment to respond. It wasn’t a very long pause, but it was just enough for Annabeth to notice that she was looking at her hand like she wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. Clearly aware of her mistake, she chuckled as she gave Annabeth the awaited gesture. “No problem, hun,” she said with a tone bright enough to settle Annabeth.

A minor interruption came in the form of a student asking Hazel a question about her horse, and the disconnect made Annabeth start looking around again. As she did, she couldn’t bring herself to look back at the girl from before; something about the idea made her feel weird all over.

Frank’s chuckle brought her attention back in. “Oh, man,” he said. “You can practically feel those two calling each other ‘bro’.”

Annabeth followed his gaze and saw Percy chatting with Jason next to the cow pen. “Oh, my gosh,” she groaned. “I absolutely feel that.”

Frank snickered behind her as she watched the two curiously. Jason leaned on the fence and brought his arm up; Annabeth’s heart seemed to stop as she saw him hook his arm around the waist of the girl from earlier. She ruffled his hair affectionately as he continued to speak with Percy, and Annabeth wasn’t quite sure where the ground was anymore. “I… I didn’t know Jason had a girlfriend,” she said, her voice uncomfortably quiet.

“Sorry?” Frank leaned in, cocking his head. Hazel looked over curiously, as well.

“Oh, I just…” Annabeth cleared her throat, squaring her shoulders and trying to ground herself. “I didn’t know Jason had a girlfriend is all.”

Frank and Hazel looked at each other for a second, and Annabeth wondered just what it was they exchanged through it. “So, you don’t know her?” Hazel asked, her eyes flicking up to the strange girl. When Annabeth shook her head, Hazel’s eyebrows raised a little bit. “She’s new. Pretty popular, too.”

Annabeth furrowed her brow. “Who is she?”

Hazel shrugged. “She’s… kind of a mystery. Most people don’t know much more than her name.”

“Which is…?” Annabeth leaned in.

 

“Piper. Piper McLean.”

 


	2. Taking Over the World, One Ice Cream at a Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An innocent trip to the ice cream shop!

As Annabeth left the school, Leo, Hazel, and Frank in tow, she checked her phone to see she’d gotten a message from Percy. Pursing her lips, she found herself faced with an image of him and Jason squatting on the sidewalk outside Baskin Robins, accompanied by the caption: “Turnin’ up @ 31 flavors.”

 

“Oh, he is gonna _get it_ ,” Annabeth hissed.

 

“What’s up?” Leo leaned over her shoulder. “Oh, my god,” he snorted. “That’s great!” Snickering, he grabbed her phone. “Oh, man, I bet we can top ‘em, though. What do you say to a selfie war?”

 

Leo showed the message to Hazel and Frank, and Hazel cocked her head. “That doesn’t look like a selfie, though. Someone took the picture for them.”

 

“Hey, I’m not gonna nitpick; this is clearly a challenge!” Leo beamed and hit a fist to his chest. “One that I’m very prepared for!”

 

Annabeth raised her eyebrows. “Why do I get the feeling that you’ve been looking for an opportunity to do something like this?”

 

“What?” Leo’s fist unfurled into a hand, splayed out in shock upon his chest. “What makes you think that?”

 

Puffing out a chuckle, Annabeth grabbed her phone back. “Just a hunch. Anyway, while I love the idea, I think I’d prefer an in-person confrontation this time.” She turned on her heel and started strutting away from the school, sending Percy a message reading, “On my way to fight you. Watch out.”

 

* * *

 

 

As Annabeth’s assembled group reached the target establishment, Leo came in ahead of the others, swinging by the little table on the sidewalk that Percy was sitting at with Jason and Nico. “Hey,” came Leo’s voice, accusatory but still friendly. “Way to not wait up for us!”

 

Taking advantage of Leo’s distracting presence, Annabeth tiptoed up behind Percy and set her hand heavily on the back of his head. “Yeah, that was just wrong,” she sighed, feeling Percy tense.

 

Frank and Hazel, not eager to jump into the confrontation, directed themselves inside while Leo pulled up a chair and sat himself on it backwards, hooking his long legs around the back. Annabeth couldn’t see Percy’s face from her angle, but she didn’t need to; she was perfectly satisfied by the raised eyebrows and suppressed smiles from Jason and Nico.

 

“To be fair,” Jason said, poking his head down in a way that exaggerated his shrugged shoulders. “You guys were taking pretty long cleaning up. We took our time getting here.”

 

Annabeth acknowledged Jason with a nod as she dug her fingers a little bit into Percy’s head. “Y’know, that is true. We probably would’ve been faster if we had a _little bit more help._ ” As she spoke, her tone grew more rigid and her words more detached. The fear that radiated off of Percy’s shoulders was starting to become reflected in the eyes of the other boys as she leaned over Percy’s shoulders.

 

The tiniest frightened laugh came from Percy. “Ahaha, well, uh… see, Annabeth, I actually, uh…” With every syllable that came from his mouth, Annabeth’s eyebrows drew further up.

 

“Hey, guys, what’s going on?” A new voice permeated Annabeth’s layer of fury, and all at once she felt herself deflate.

 

Leo perked up, beaming at the newcomer who was conveniently out of Annabeth’s line of sight. “Oh, hey, Pipes! Didn’t know you’d be here!”

 

Annabeth’s eyes widened and she let go of Percy, spinning to face the striking stranger that was Piper McLean. Why does everyone know this girl but me? Annabeth’s thoughts frantically questioned as she blatantly gawked at the new girl. She was taller than Annabeth, made of the warmest shades of sienna that seemed to glow in the sunlight. Annabeth stiffened as she felt someone prod at her back. Apparently she’d nearly backed straight into Nico’s chair; she hadn’t even realized that her feet were moving. Opting to sit down before she did anything else dumb, she swiped a nearby chair and anchored herself to it, croaking out a meager greeting: “Hi there, Pi… per.”

 

Piper cocked her hip to the side, eyes shut in a friendly smile. “Hi, Annabeth.” She approached the table, three ice cream cones in hand, acknowledging everyone’s greetings. “Looks like our little group grew, huh? I’m guessing Hazel and Frank are with you, since I just saw them inside.”

 

Jason nodded and smiled gratefully as Piper offered him one of her cones. “Yeah, they all stayed behind a little later to clean stuff up at school.”

 

An ungodly screech of metal on pavement sounded as Percy shot up from his chair. “Y’know what? I think I need to go to the bathroom,” he announced, perhaps a little too loudly, before scurrying inside.

 

“Hey, don’t expect me to just hold your ice cream for you!” Piper called after him before turning back with a sigh. Of the two cones left in her hands, one was light blue, and the other pale cream freckled with some golden brown. It wasn’t exactly difficult to tell which one was for Percy.

 

“Looks like the guilt finally got to him,” came Nico’s comment. “I wonder if he’ll ever actually come back out.”

 

Leo crinkled his nose. “What’s he gonna do? Camp in the bathroom forever?”

 

Jason puffed out a snort as he wiped some ice cream from his lip. “I wouldn’t be surprised. Annabeth looked ready to downright murder him.”

 

Annabeth felt a handful of gazes turn towards her, the most notable one being Piper’s. She made an effort to look proud of her endeavors, but something inside of her wanted to shrink into her seat at the new attention. There was something odd about how her friend group had a brand new person as an unquestioned part of it, though no one else seemed to mind. Nevertheless, Annabeth tried to ignore how unusual it was; perhaps it would feel natural after a while of hanging out with Piper.

 

Grinning, Leo leaned back in his chair. “Man, sometimes you’re even spookier than Nico.” To Annabeth’s right, she heard Nico click his tongue. Leo continued: “I bet if you two worked together, you could rule the world through pure intimidation.”

 

“World domination, huh?” Piper smirked and shifted her weight, strolling over and stealing Percy’s seat next to Jason. “Sign me up. You can’t do the cool stuff without inviting me.” She licked happily at her ice cream. As she shot a couple glances to the cone in her other hand, Annabeth wondered if she was considering the theft of another of Percy’s things if he stayed away long enough.

 

“And what do you hope to contribute to our plans?” Annabeth propped her elbows on the table, quirking up an eyebrow.

 

Piper caught Annabeth’s eyes, pushing into the very air around her with a heated stare. “You’d be impressed just how intimidating I can be,” she said, her voice low and her wide pupils threatening to engulf Annabeth’s consciousness.

 

The eye contact snapped as bright laughter caught Annabeth’s attention. Leo bit down on his knuckle apologetically. “Sorry, it’s just hard to take you seriously when you’ve got goop on your chin.”

 

Annabeth felt her face scrunch in confusion as she looked back at Piper. Surely enough, there was a smear of ice cream on her face, which she reached to wipe off before realizing that her hands were both full.

 

Jason swooped in to help, chuckling as he swiped his thumb down her chin. “Yeah, it did kinda counteract the whole scary glare thing,” he said with a smirk, leaning in peck Piper sweetly. Annabeth felt a harsh burn prick at the back of her neck, overpowering the warmth of the sun. Funny, she thought. Didn’t seem to keep it from working on me.

 

Wanting to escape from the suffocating heat on her skin, Annabeth rose stiffly from her seat. “I’m gonna go and get myself some ice cream,” she muttered. In an attempt to keep herself from seeming too out of character to the others, she added: “And maybe drag Percy out of hiding.” She backed away from the table and shot a quick glance to the reactions of her friends. She only looked long enough to see Piper shift a bit to face her as Leo rose from his seat, saying something about how he should probably get his ice cream, too. As Annabeth turned away and headed inside, she nearly barreled through Hazel and Frank. She threw back a hasty apology and basked in the fresh, chill air of the interior of the shop. She puffed out a breath and approached the counter, her eyes scanning aimlessly over the rows of multicolored flavors. She couldn’t ground her mind quite enough to focus on actually deciding on what to get; images of Piper flashed through her mind, accompanied by the unusually intrusive face of Jason, and Annabeth could hear herself grinding her teeth as she stared down the tub of pistachio ice cream.

 

“Oh, my gosh, everything looks so goooood!” Leo appeared beside her, his hands pressed to the glass. “How many scoops do you think I could stack before it gets weird?”

 

Annabeth chortled, thankful for a distraction. “I think anything more than two or three would be a little weird.”

 

Leo’s eyes narrowed. “We’ll see about that…”

 

As he peered over the counter to get the attention of the bored looking employee, Annabeth turned around and leaned back against the glass, rubbing a hand over her face. She felt ridiculous for being upset; of course Piper and Jason would do couple-y things in public. It shouldn’t seem weird at all. Yet, somehow, it felt so incredibly wrong. She could almost conjure a reason for it, too. Some kind of unspoken law that they were breaking, somewhere in the back of her mind…

 

“Hey, you okay?”

 

Annabeth blinked herself out of her stupor and saw Percy, clearly more than a little scared, quirking a questioning eyebrow at her. “It‘s nothing,” she mumbled halfheartedly, pushing herself up and straightening her posture. “Just a little stressed. School junk.”

 

Percy turned his eyebrows up sympathetically. “Yeah, I feel that. Tell you what, I’ll buy you your ice cream. Will that make you feel better?”

 

For a split second, Annabeth moved to object, but she shut her mouth as Percy reached into his pocket. She knew better than to turn down free stuff. She turned and glanced across her options. “Oooh, caramel bits…” she hummed, tapping her chin. Smiling, she looked up at the vacant face of the person on the other side of the counter. “How many scoops would you say is your maximum?”

 

She could’ve sworn that she saw the words ‘not again’ form on the employee’s lips.

 

Annabeth emerged alongside Percy with a cone stacked comically high with various flavors of frozen deliciousness. Annabeth actually needed to hold a napkin-covered hand to the side of the stack to keep it from falling over. As her friends all turned to watch her approach, reactions varied from amused to confused to downright terrified.

 

“Hey, looks like you actually did drag Percy out,” observed Jason, straightening in his seat a bit.

 

“You took forever,” Piper scolded. “Your stuff’s all melty now.” She offered him his cone, wrapped in napkins but still managing to dribble little blue specks onto the table. Percy mumbled an apology and took it, shuffling around behind Piper and Jason in an attempt to find a new seat near where his last had been.

 

Annabeth pulled a chair up with her foot and sat herself down next to Frank and Hazel, who were both eyeing her treat warily. “That doesn’t look safe,” Frank muttered, his eyebrows drawn together.

 

“I’m gonna ask you what I asked Leo,” Hazel said, gesturing to Annabeth’s stack. “How do you expect to eat all that before it turns to mush?”

 

“Through sheer willpower,” Leo chimed in from across the table, clearly pretending not to be put off by the streaks of goo that were already dripping down his hands.

 

Annabeth chuckled. “Good guess, but no. Hazel, could you reach into my shirt pocket?” Hazel narrowed her eyes as she reached carefully between Annabeth’s arms and pulled a handful of plastic spoons from her shirt pocket. “See?” Annabeth smiled and nodded to the spoons. “Go ahead and pass those to everyone. A little teamwork and this’ll be gone in no time.”

 

Leo gawked and proudly swatted down the spoon that Hazel offered him. “You’re weak, Annabeth! You’re using others when you could easily vanquish this beast yourself! Augh!” He yelped and squirmed in his seat as if trying to escape the errant drops of his own ‘beast’.

 

Percy smeared some blue from his face before taking a few spoons from Hazel and passing them along to Piper and Jason. Smiling gratefully, Jason scooted his chair towards Annabeth and Piper tagged along. “This is actually a really good idea,” Jason commented, cautiously taking some from the top scoop. “Thanks, Annabeth.”

 

“Y’ _know_ ,” Percy sang as he leaned over and poked at the pillar of ice cream himself. “You should be thanking _me_ , since _I_ paid for it!”

 

“Yeah, but it was Annabeth’s idea,” Piper countered, twirling her spoon in her hand as she glanced up and down the various flavors she had access to. “Ooh, you got my favorite! C’mere, caramel bits!”

 

Percy put an offended, sticky hand to his chest. “Hey! How d’you know it wasn’t my idea?”

 

“Oh, c’mon,” Piper said, raising an eyebrow at Percy. “I know… I know it wasn’t you. You looked just as surprised as everyone else when you got that spoon.”

 

Annabeth couldn’t help but notice the little bout of hesitation in Piper’s voice, but what she said sounded so damn convincing otherwise that she didn’t even think twice about it. “Don’t go claiming my ideas as your own,” she said. “If you keep that up, I won’t count this as payment for skipping out earlier.”

 

Percy looked about ready to counter, but he seemed to think twice about it, huffing and pointing his attention back to the ice cream at hand. Everyone around seemed to have a similar sentiment, because a lull followed, taken up almost entirely with the consumption of Annabeth’s tower of sweets. As the pile slowly shrunk, both because of melting and the ravenous teenagers around it, Annabeth lapped idly at it as well. It wasn’t long before what had once been a mountain was now either inside the cone or in a puddle on the pavement. It was a messy, but happy victory, and Annabeth couldn’t help feeling a little proud as she saw everyone’s contented faces.

 

Before Annabeth knew it, the group was getting ready to head their separate ways, chattering about plans and schoolwork that had yet to be done as, one by one, they split off, giving a couple hugs or high-fives before they strolled down the street into the golden air of sunset. Annabeth lingered a bit as she watched Piper and Jason head off together, arms slung across one another. She knew that there wasn’t anything really wrong, but she couldn’t knock her pit of discomfort out of its seat. Just who was this girl, and why did her presence make Annabeth feel so off-center? Maybe all Annabeth needed to do was get to know her better. Maybe that would solve all these problems.

 

Puffing out a breath, Annabeth turned to Percy, who was the only person to stay behind as long as her. “You ready to go?”

 

Percy nodded, and the pair started off towards their neighborhood. “Hey, Percy,” Annabeth piped up, pushing a hand into her pocket. “D’you have Piper’s phone number?”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is still suuuuper WiP, and I'm gonna be doing a lot of figuring it out as I go, so expect there to be many changes and odd turns as I work my way through it. Also, most of the chapters likely aren't going to be this long; first chapters are usually the hardest.  
> I can guarantee you, though, that this story is not gonna go the way you might expect.


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